Paris Cinderella
by bubblegumballet
Summary: Jen lives in Paris with her three best friends. She's working to become a designer and a model. She's currently working the Fashion Week. A ball comes up, with deadines and curfews she must get home before midnight, leaving her prince behind in confusion.
1. Chapter 1

"Okay we're out of here, Madam Suzanne!" I called out at nine thirty to Madam Suzanne. I picked up my bag and ran towards the door, grabbing Gabrielle, or Gabby, in the process. We ran out the door and down the streets of Paris. Once on Main Street we flew through the door of our tiny studio apartment we shared with one other girl, Andrea, and one boy, Steven. "Come on we have ten minutes before we're suppose to be there!" I yelled up the stairs to her and she came flying down the railing.

"Okay, okay." She told me and finished buttoning up her pants. Running up the stairs to my wardrobe I pulled out my black A-line skirt and a white tank top. Throwing them on continuing to wear the black flats on my feet I ran back down the stairs. "Hurry up!" she said as I grabbed my bag and ran out the door. I skipped down the stairs and out the front door of the building.

"Come on." Gabby called from the cab door as I dove in basically. "Lovely." She stated sarcastically and climbed in next to me. "The fashion show venue please." She told the driver, he nodded and pulled away from the curb.

Okay so maybe we should back up a bit. I'm Jennifer Hope Johnson and I live in Paris. I'm a model and designer on the rise as Andrea and Gabby put it. We moved here right after high school graduation. I was alone except for them. My father died when I was twelve and my mother died this past year. Andrea and Gabby moved here to become models and when I became a designer, they were going to be my models.

We're from America, so we mainly speak English, barely ever speak French. We came from Georgia so, we have a slightly accent, but Andrea has the biggest accent I've ever heard it's quiet funny, but cute. Brown hair is a tendency for the two cousins, so is bright green eyes and tall slender bodies. Beach blonde hair is my color and blue eyes, with a complementing tall slender body as well. Okay back to the real story.

"So how exactly did you get us this Andrea?" I questioned taking my lip gloss out of my bag.

"I called my aunt on my mom's side," she and Gabby were related through her dad. "and she talked to the producer of the show and got us the gig." She explained and shrugged snatching the lip gloss out of my hand as the driver pulled to the curb. 'Thanks." She said handing him the money and getting out. I followed her out and stepped onto the sidewalk. I slammed the door behind me and walked into the building.

"Jennifer Johnson, Andrea Montela, and Gabrielle Montela." I told the big, burly man who was guarding the entrance to the dressing rooms. He check his list and stepped aside for us to step in. My phone vibrated telling me we're right on time, as Aunt Candice came over. We all called her aunt even if all of us weren't her nieces. "Right on time." I said as she shook her head in amusement before pushing us towards the make up chairs. I sat down and closed my eyes. A hand was placed on my shoulder before the chair was turned around and pushed down to a sink.

"How do I say goodbye," came out through the speaker by my right leg. I could feel the vibrations going up my body, while the hairstylist did my hair. I sat there eyes closed for half an hour before I remembered the laptop in my bag. My eyes flew open and I reached down into my bag to pull up the writing again. The hairstylist sighed as I moved and pulled part of my hair out of his hands.

"Sorry Phillip." I said and leaned back again with the laptop fitted on my lap. I opened it up and saw a note with the words Password and FairyTale written on it. The sign in pulled up and I typed in FairyTale. It opened up to a midnight blue sky and a castle sitting in front of it. I clicked on the Microsoft Word and pulled up the latest document. I continued from where I had stopped, until Steven came over and sat down next to me, I looked up and smiled. His hair had been put into a Mohawk, and he was wearing black tight jeans and a punk rocker shirt.

"Bonjour mademoiselle." He said and I rolled my eyes, he was Greek, but loved to tease me with French. For the first six months of living here I used a French dictionary everywhere.

"Hello Steven Elijah Nott." I said saying his full name to annoy him. He cringed at his full name. "What part of the show are you in. Rocker chic?" I teased and he nodded.

"What about you, little miss glittery eyes? Drag queen?" he teased back and I hit his arm.

"The Sweet Heart section." I told him and he nodded. "Well I gotta change. Goodbye" I said after looking at my sparkling gold eyes and pink lips. My hair was a mass of curls, some pulled back and other cascading down my back. I walked over to where the girls would get dressed and pulled on a red dress and high heels. The dress was tight across my chest with thin spaghetti straps and went to my knees. The skirt was A-line and sparkled with glitter. The top had a line of gold rhinestones underneath the bust. The heels were red with gold accents like hearts on the heels and underneath on the bottom. I walked back out and Steven's mouth dropped.

"Oh. My. God!" I heard Gabby's voice say from behind me and she stepped out in her evening wear. It was a yellow dress with diamond looking rhinestones on the spaghetti straps and a line of them under the bust like mine. It reached the ground and trailed behind her.

"What?!" Andrea exclaimed from behind her. She was standing backwards pulling up the corset on her casual outfit. She turned around and her mouth also dropped. She was wearing skinny leg jeans and a pair of black cork screw pumps. The top was a white tank top with a pink corset over the top. "Oh. My. God! You look amazing!" she exclaimed and I blushed. I felt an arm sneak around my shoulders. Steven wrapped his other arm around Andrea, who pulled Gabby over to our group huddle. I wrapped an arm around her and Steven, while she wrapped her arms around me and Andrea. "We all look amazing, and we're all gonna rock this show tonight. Hands in." she said and put one hand in. I slapped mine down on top of it and then Gabby and Steven followed. We placed our second hand on top and I counted to three.

"1, 2, 3!" I yelled.

"ROCK!" we yelled and got ourselves attention from the hairstylist. They shook their head and the models just laughed at us. All of us had worked together before and they all knew we were kinda crazy.

"Kay I'm up first I'll see ya later girlies." I said even to Steven who just glared at me. We had this teasing relationship, but we knew it was just joking and when we really needed someone he was there.

"Welcome to the Paris Fashion Week first show." Came through the speakers and then came out in about three different languages. "We start tonight off with the Sweet Heart collection designed by Dianna Roberts." That was said the music that cued Sarah to go started up applause came from the crowd. When she posed at the end of the runway I knew it was my turn to go. I took a deep breathe to calm down the butterflies in my stomach that happened to come up every time I did a show. I stepped out onto the runway and the crowd started their applause. At the end of the walk way I did a sweet shy smile and posed for the cameras. Flashes were going off as I went back down the runway and Holly came out. Another round of applause as I posed back at the beginning of the runway and walked off stage.

"JEN! I need your help!" Dianna yelled when I came back off. "A model for the Rocker Chic didn't show. I need you to go out there in that outfit as well." She told me and pushed me towards the hairstylist. He started to strip my hair accessories out and straightened it. Five minutes later my hair had been straightened; twice, and the part placed way to the right of my head. A clip held the hair down so it wasn't too high, but not plastered to my head. He lightly kicked my butt with his foot signifying me to hurry up and change. Dianna handed me a pile of clothes and I ran to the dressing section.

"The Casual Chic look is coming your way down the walk way so hang on." I heard. Rocker was right after Casual Chic so I threw off the dress and heels throwing on the white leg tight jeans, and then a tight white shirt with a orange guitar printed on the front with music notes flying around it. A halter style vest with black and orange pin stripes on it and buttons was the last piece besides the shoes. I left the vest unbuttoned and slid the black and orange shoes, that were like converse, on. I ran out to get Dianna's approval and she looked me up and down. She squashed her face in disapproval and looked for what she thought was wrong. She found it and it was my hair. She grabbed the clip out of my hair and moved my part towards the middle, but not to the middle. She left it to the right and then ran her hands through it messing it up so it was messy, but straight.

"Go!" she yelled at me and pointed towards the runway. I ran there which only helped my hair get messier. And right when I got there it was my turn to get on the runway. I walked down it and passed Steven who looked unfazed, but I knew he wondered why I was there. At the end I posed with one hand in the air doing the rock on sign and the other hanging out in my pocket. I heard a laugh, which was the point and then walked back down to the end. Once off Steven, Gabby and Andrea were there looking at me questioningly.

"A model didn't show." I said before they could ask.

"Well babe, that outfit fits you perfectly when we go to concerts." Andrea laughed and we walked back to where our stuff was.

"That concludes the first night of Fashion Week. Thanks for coming and we hope to see you tomorrow." The voice came through the speakers as there was a big round of applause, and voices of the audience rang through the place as they exited.

"Come on we need some kind of dinner, don't we?" I said referring to the fact that Gabby and I hadn't gotten anything to eat since were working up until it was time to be here. They nodded and we headed out in the clothes we ended in except for Gabby who had changed in a pair of straight leg jeans, a pair of black converse, and a simple black short sleeve t-shirt. I tried to haul a cab over, but had bad luck until a cab pulled over. When my hand reached for the handle another hand did as well. I looked up and saw the woman from the café standing there.

"Go a head dear." She said and opened the door for me.

"Thanks, come on Jen let's go." Andrea said and pushed me into the cab. I looked behind me and the woman was standing there watching as we drove away.

"Hey Jen isn't that the woman from the café earlier?" Gabby asked me and I nodded facing forwards. "You okay?" she asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, just really hungry I haven't eaten since eight this morning." I lied to them and kept thinking about the woman. Emma as she said her name in the story was. "So where are we heading for dinner?" I asked and looked from each of them.

"Home." We answered at the same time. We didn't eat out that much unless we were celebrating something. "Hey did you hear they're having a ball the last night of fashion week. All the models and all the guest and reporters are invited." Gabby told us and I smiled.

"You have to design the dresses Jen. This could be your chance to get out there." Andrea said, and I nodded in agreement.

"Definitely. And would ya mind making a suit for me?" Steven said from the front seat.

"Of course I'll make the dresses and the suit for you Steven." I told them and they smiled. "But you all have to help with the sewing I mean three dresses and one suit will not be easy for one person to make in six days." I told them and they nodded as the cab pulled up to our apartment.


	2. Chapter 2

"Home sweet home." Gabby said opening the door and walking inside. The living room, dinning room and kitchen were impeccably clean, just like it had been since last weekend when we had an in home interview with a designer. She had turned me down because of my inexperience.

"Mac and Cheese okay?' I asked looking in the cabinet. The only things in there were two boxes of Mac and Cheese. "And someone needs to go grocery shopping, while I start on the dresses and suits." I called up the stairs to the bedroom and bathroom.

"I'll do it I guess." Andrea called back down with a towel wrapped around her body. "And Mac and Cheese is great, for the third night in a row." I heard her say the last part more to herself. I shook my head and took out a pot for the water to boil in. I turned on the stove top and placed the pot full of water on the burner.

I walked over to the bar height table and pulled out the laptop. I opened it up to the writing and continued my reading. It was thirty three pages of size twelve font and I was only on page seven where Emma had just gotten slapped by Stacie. I heard the sizzle of water hitting the stove top, after boiling over. I ran over and turned down the heat so it was on medium and was just slightly boiling. I poured the two boxes of Mac and Cheese into the pot and went back to the laptop. Five minutes later I returned and drained the pasta. I mixed everything into the pot and took a fifth of it out of the pot and put it into a bowl.

"Soups on!" I called as I picked up my bag and the laptop, and headed up the stairs.

"Merci." Steven said running past me and down the stairs followed by Gabby and Andrea. I walked up the stairs with the laptop in one hand and the purse over my shoulder and the bowl in the other hand. The upstairs was separated by a white cabinet, that we used as a book case and for desks. On the left side was Steven's fourth of the loft, and on the right was Gabby, Andrea and mine's three fourths of the loft. There was a bathroom on each side and a walk in closet that we used as dressing rooms. My bed was parallel to the giant window that Gabby's bed sat underneath. Andrea's sat to the left of mines so she was closest to the stairs. In between Andrea and mine's beds was the bathroom door, while the closet curtain, it didn't have a door, was to the right of my bed. There were three desks in the cabinet, with a book case worth of shelving in between them. Mine had a orange computer chair in front of it and a calendar hanging up on the back wall of the cabinet. A laptop sat asleep on the desk and a can of pens and pencils, then a tablet hooked up to computer and a sketch pad laid out as well.

I walked up to the calendar and crossed off another day. Then next day was circled and when I saw it I sighed. Both of my parents had died on the same day. One in a bank hold up and one in a car accident. I sat down cross legged on my bed with my back against the head board and placed the laptop down in front of me. I read for the next thirty minutes, before my name was called from down stairs.

"Jen get down here and watch this!" Gabby yelled excitedly up the stairs. I looked over the railing and she was pointing to the tv. I walked down stairs and they were show clips from the show. "They were talking about you."

"Jennifer Hope Johnson. She an up and coming model who is also trying to make it in the big design world." My mouth dropped and I fell onto the armchair next to me. "She currently is having no luck with the job, but her employers say she is one of the most talented designers they have seen." I watched as the woman continued to talk and show me walk down the runway. "I'd keep my eye on this one boys and girls, and be prepared for a sudden rising star." She finished and sarted talking about the designers new lines.

"Oh my god." I whispered and the phone rang. I looked up and grabbed it from the coffee table. "Bonjour, Johnson, Montela, and Nott foyer. Comment pouvoir je aide vous?" **Hello, Johnson, Montela, and Nott residence. How may I help you? **I asked in French and waited for a reply.

"Hello. You do speak English right?" a woman's voice came across the line.

"Yes ma'am." I answered and sat up straight.

"Great. I'm Mrs. Joy Clare. I'm looking for Ms. Jennifer Hope Johnson." She said to me and I picked up a piece of paper.

"Speaking. How can I help you?" I asked through the phone.

"Well I'm sure you know I'm a designer, and I was watching the news and the story on you came up." She told me and I got an idea of what she wanted. A smile erupted onto my lips. "Are you going to the ball at the end of Fashion Week?"

"Yes." I answered, this wasn't what I was expecting.

"I am considering hiring you as a designer for my company, but I would like to see some designs in real life. I would love it if you made a dress and wore it too the ball." She told me and confirmed my idea of what she wanted. My smile confused the others, but I just waved them off and their questioning looks.

"I'd love too. Thank you so much I won't let you down." I said and hung up the phone. I squealed in the chair and had a little fit. I jumped up and raced up the stairs. I heard thuds behind me and knew Andrea, Gabby and Steven were following me.

"What's going on?!" Steven asked as I started to pull out sketch paper and pencils.

"I got a job possibly!" I squealed with a pencil in between my teeth, while I pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

"OH MY GOD!" they all yelled I waved them off and they settled down. "What do you have to do?" Andrea asked as I sat down at my desk.

"Design a dress and wear it to the ball next Saturday." I explained taking the pencil out of my mouth and starting to draw a body figure.

"Then we'll leave you to it. Night, night." Gabby said and dragged the other two down stairs. I popped my ear buds into my ear and turned on my mp3 player. Music came through blocking out the rest of the sounds. I sketched the dresses and suit then started to color them in. it had taken me four hours, and by the time I looked up all the lights were off except for my desk lamp and Gabby and Andrea were in bed asleep. I looked at the clock and saw it say 1:37 AM. I sigh and walked over to my bed. I fell down on it and hugged the first stuffed animal I got when I was less than a year old to my chest. I thought about my parents and felt my throat start to close. I realized I had tears in my eyes and they were starting to fall.

I didn't realize I was making any sound until I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around my upper body. I turned and saw Steven laying down behind me hugging me to his chest. I heard a groan of Gabby waking up and saw her sit up. She looked over at me and saw the tears. She got out of her bed and woke up Andrea. They both came over and Andrea sat down in front of my stomach and rubbed my side. Gabby somehow crawled up behind me and was stroking my hair. I a gentle humming coming from behind me and closed my eyes.

It happened like this every year. I would end up crying and would stay hidden underneath my covers. It was worse when I was twelve:

_My dad had gone to the bank to make a deposit before we headed off towards Hawaii for our family vacation. My father was always sure nothing would ever happen to him. He would joke about living to be four hundred. When I was like five I would always say I would live until he died as well. He would laugh and say that I would live much longer than him. I knew he was right, but I didn't think that he would be leaving so soon_

_We had been waiting for him to return for two hours before my mom had got the call. The phone went off right as we started to eat dinner. My mom, being the big worry wart she was, jumped up and ran to the phone. I didn't believe anything was wrong at the time and thought that my mom was just over reacting. She came back into the dinning room shaking. She collapsed into a chair and broke into tears._

_Three hours later we, my mother, sister, and I, were sitting in chairs in a completely white room. I could see everything go by in slow motion. You don't really understand what you father is to you until you sit there and wait for him to die. I could hear squeaking of shoes coming down the hall and I jumped up. The nurse turned the corner and faced my tearful face. She shook her head and came closer. "I'm so sorry, but Mr. Johnson has passed." She said and hurried off before the waterworks came. My mother attempted to grab my hand, but I ran. I ran out of the hospital and into the court yard of the place. I collapsed against a tree and fell to the ground._

_It had been five years since the death and I was finally starting to be able to not cry on that day, but then that happened and it changed. My mom had gone out to grab some donuts, and left me to get up Jewels. I had just gone up the stair to wake up my eight year old sister, when my cell phone went off. I had never talked to a doctor over the phone and this was my first time. It was eight in the morning, and a drunk had been driving around. He had found my mom's car and hit it, she was unconscious in the ER. My hand was shaking out of control and the phone fell out of it right as the doctor was telling me to come down immediately. Hitting the floor I ran into the bathroom locking the door behind me. I hadn't been in the best mood because of my father's death, but now this just pushed me over the edge. I slid down the door and onto the ground crying._

_Two hours later my aunt had come to get us. She was banging on the door for half an hour before I gave in and opened up. We moved in with her and her boyfriend. Jewels was taken away by child care a week later. I never forgot that sinking feeling in my stomach that happened every time I thought about it._

I woke up the next day to sunlight shooting through the giant window. I rubbed my eyes, but had very little movement. I turned my head and saw that Steven was still hugging me to his chest. He was asleep and lightly snoring. I laughed and unwrapped his arms from around me. I looked at my self in the full length mirror and saw my red swollen face. I rubbed the back off my head as I stripped and got into a shower. After stepping out I saw Steven running around pulling his tie over his head and trying to get it tied.

"Come here." I sighed and motioned for him to come over to me. he came obediently and I tied the tie properly.

"Thanks. You know so much about these things." He told me and started his running around again. I walked into the dressing room and pulled out jeans and a shirt. The jeans were dark and tight, while the shirt was a simple dark grey knit quarter sleeve shirt. It was a v-neck and underneath I wore a pink undershirt.

"I'm leaving." I called to him running down the stairs and slipping on both my shoes and sunglasses.

"Wait where are you going?! Don't you tent to…you know…stay home and hide on this day?" he said and came down the stairs as well.

"Yeah, but I have three dresses and a suit to make so I need fabric." I explained as he stood in front of me in his dress shirt and slacks. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and went out the door.

"Good luck!" I called and entered the elevator.


End file.
